Abstract
In October 1936, two exceptional Royal Air Force pilots flew privately to Germany to see what they could discover about the Luftwaffe. Their report, now in Britain’s National Archives, has never been published, but was used by Winston Churchill in his efforts to alert the British government to the danger of aerial attack. The airmen were well received everywhere and permitted to fly on their own over Berlin. They examined and even flew the latest bombers and met members of the élite Richthofen Squadron, Ernst Udet, and Heinrich Koppenberg. Greatly impressed by German air power, they urged the British Air Ministry to focus on a Wellington-Blenheim strike force, backed by Hurricane and Spitfire fighters.
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Cite this article
Vincent Orange, “The German Air Force Is Already 'The Most Powerful in Europe': Two Royal Air Force Officers Report on a Visit to Germany, 6-15 October 1936,” The Journal of Military History 70, no. 4 (October 2006): 1011–1028.